What is AUR and how to enable it on Arch Linux and derivatives

Arch Linux

Here on the blog many times we have been talking about the installation of some tools or applications in general in Linux, andn which most I try to include the most popular distributions.

Among them I usually include Arch Linux and its derivatives. Although I would like to talk about only one in particular, I cannot leave the others aside, because in the end they have the same basis.

In many of these publications they generally recommend installing from the AUR and using an "AUR helper" to do so.

For those readers who are unaware of this we will talk a little about this today.

Those who are Linux users with some time of use, should identify the term "repository" which is simply a software source.

Esto means it is a storage location from which software packages can be obtained and install on a computer.

A repository (also called a repos) can be classified into two types: official repository and repository maintained by third parties (user) any user.

Obviously the official repo sources come pre-installed with Arch Linux, Manjaro, Antergos, or any distribution derived from Arch Linux.

On the other hand, there is Archiving Archiving Repository (AUR), Which is a community driven repository for Arch Linux and its derivatives.

Like the official repository, they also contain package descriptions (PKGBUILD) that can be compiled from source with makepkg and then installed via pacman. AUR exists to share new packages from the community.

Installing and uninstalling applications

To install applications on any Arch Linux based or derived system you can "Add / Remove software" this is generally done from the terminal with the help of Pacman.

Although in some desktop environments, they usually include a tool to help you install or uninstall applications.

In this case we can also make use of a well-known tool called Octopi, which is a graphical interface for Pacman that also allows us to interact with AUR.

Enabling AUR on Arch Linux and derivatives

To be able to add AUR support to any Arch Linux derivative system where they can gain access to thousands of applications created and maintained by the community.

Considering that these apps are community driven, not all apps are regularly updated.

In fact, there are several applications that have not been updated for more than 5 years. You may want to stay away from such apps as they can cause system stability issues and in worst case scenarios they can also present security risks.

In order to enable this, dWe must add some lines to our pacman.conf file, which we will add the following lines to the end of the file.

Just open a terminal and edit with nano or your favorite text editor:

sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf

Y we add at the end:

[archlinuxfr]

Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch

Now done this, we must execute the following command, To synchronize the databases and the added repository with the system:

sudo pacman -Sy

Done this now we must install an assistant to help us install the applications that are within AUR, for this you can consult the following article where I recommend one.

They can also choose to just use a software manager and avoid using the command line, as I mentioned Octopi, which is an excellent package management tool for Arch Linux and derivatives.

Although I would personally recommend that you use the terminal as much as possible, since in this way they will begin to get used to the commands and to learn to administer, modify, update and manage their system.

Even downgrade, remove the graphical environment, and rebuild the system and more.

This is one of the great features that I like about Arch Linux because even if you lose the graphical environment, if you installed from scratch yourself, you will simply know what to do to recover it again.

That, unlike other systems, users go crazy and many of them choose to reinstall.


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  1.   emerson said

    As usual
    The guy assumes that you know the same as he knows, so you read him, and you come out just as fishy as what you entered
    Edit the file, it says, is archlinuxfr in brackets? Will I find it as a title? Do I have to remove the # sign? Does the following line (Server = http://repo.archlinux.fr/$arch) where do I put it? With a space? at this point you regret having wasted time